For the Love of DOGS!

We spent some time dog sitting this fall. Woody was an older dog and took a beating from my kids that loved crawling on him and chasing him around. Julianna kicks the dogs out of their kennels and climbs in her self to play. ;) The kids now think that we need another dog! We are hoping that we just survive the holidays with this puppy!

Found a local butcher shop!

I've been looking around for something locally and haven't had much luck. I saw an advertisement in a local magazine and gave this place a try.

I only got ground beef to start and it was very good quality! They e-mail coupons out regularly with deals. I took advantage of one, $15 for 5 pounds of lean ground beef. It was 90%+ and less than half of the price that I pay at whole foods! I was impressed with the store and plan to start buying more of our meat here! Check it out if you get a chance, they also have a deli and have a small area to eat lunch. When I was there on a Saturday they were cooking all kinds of yummy meats outside! They are on Highway 92 between Trickum and Sandy Plains Roads.

Love at 6?

Jayden is completely head over heals for the girl next door. Shes in 4th grade and is very sweet. Jayden will stand at the foot of the driveway and call to her from 2 houses away and beg to see her every chance that he gets. He's informed us that they are going to get married some day.

So recently we've been talking about marriage in our home because Jayden insists that he is going to marry the neighbor girl. When he mentioned this the first time I told him that we don't always marry the first person that we fall in love with and that she may decide to go to a different college than him. Jayden started crying hysterically and telling me that I don't know what I am talking about and that he is going to marry her when they grow up. The only benefit of all this love talk is that she is a smart girl and enjoys school, so now I remind him that he has to do his best with his school work if he wants her to marry him! It's helped a bit!

I never even thought about love or marriage till I was beyond 5th grade! Any one else dealing with a love struck child at such a young age?

Yummy Caramel Apple dip

I found a tasty recipe for homemade caramel dip. We had too many apples in the house and I am hoping this will help them disappear quickly!

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 cups of packed light brown sugar

3/4 cup light corn syrup

1 stick of butter

pinch of salt

Throw everything in a pot, bring to boil and stir frequently so everything mixes well and it doesn't burn. Serve! It makes a large batch so I put the leftovers in the fridge. Not sure how well it will reheat but I will let you know tomorrow!

Rudolph at the Center for Puppetry Arts! 11/2/11

The kids had a blast today watching another amazing performance at the Center for Puppetry Arts. Every show we've seen their has been fantastic. The kids had fun making a Rudolph shadow puppet afterward and got to play with them on a screen too. The girls in the picture with Juli behind the screen are all 4 years old, just spaced over 3 months. Also Julianna has been happy to use her new chair finally! It's been easier on both of us so far. We haven't gotten as many stares or questions about her appearance lately but then she's only been in it a few times. It's hard to decide exactly what to say to people when they comment on her appearance. I've really been trying to encourage her to speak loud and clear so people don't brush off as younger than she really is! St her to he informed me today that I need to let her make her chair move on her own instead of me using the handle to steer her. I guess we will have to find somewhere to practice. Our house is carpeted and full of steps anyway. We might have to visit the mall early one morning when it's not to busy to practice! I'll update more on her caringbridge page about her chair as soon as I have some free time that I'm not using for sleeping!

Trick or Treat!

The kids had a blast at our annual HOA's Halloween festival. They played games, ate some yummy food, went on a hayride, roasted marshmallows and then did some trunk or treating. The kids also went to a few houses on Halloween night. Juli enjoyed pretending to be a dog and Jayden was happy to be a dinosaur/dragon this year. It's getting harder to find the cute costumes for him in bigger sizes, He's officially hit the 4 foot mark! Not long before he's towering over me. Sad to see him growing up so fast! Glad he has such an amazing imagination still.

Puppy update! 10/18/11

This puppy just keeps growing! She has more than tripled her weight and we expect her to do that again over the winter months! We all love her even though she drives us crazy! As you can see in the picture with Julianna laying down, the Tiana likes to chew on everything! Especially wood, including the base boards throughout the house. We have the tummy troubles under control for now and she seems house broken with the exception of new visitors that love on her, then her bladder doesn't work so well! Hopefully the change in her food will make her tummy troubles disappear completely but we won't know for sure till we take her off of her meds.